


all the stars are closer

by Requestedgems



Series: do you think the universe fights for souls to be together? [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Easy Read, F/M, Fluff, Fluffity Fluff Fluff, Light-Hearted, Slow Build, Unspoken words, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, ben and rey, ben doesn't know what he wants to be, language learning, rey and ben, unclear feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 08:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13337877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Requestedgems/pseuds/Requestedgems
Summary: one time rey needed help and ben became the walking dictionary





	all the stars are closer

**Author's Note:**

> "'Til she kills my soul, you're all that I'll know  
> I was a lost boy, I was a lost boy in my room"  
> \- lost boy, jaden smith

Rey was staring intently at the screen in front of her, currently doing some heavy research on the Jedi Order and its history. From what she could tell, it wasn’t the most liked and respected job in the world, but at one point it was there to protect the people and bring balance to the world. 

At least that’s what the datapad told her; from the bits she could read. She barely knew else more than the stories and whispers spread in markets from distant traders, having lived many generations, and even less from Luke himself. The Order has been gone for some time now and she wondered why. Why was the information buried in the deepest corners of the world? What caused that much information to be thrown away and why was it so hard to find?

She sighed and got up to go back for another datapad, before she felt a stillness in the air, time stopping on command, and all noises completely fading into the background static. It was time again and she rushed to grab the datapad she was just using. If she was going to go somewhere, she should at least take something to keep her entertained.  
When Rey looked up again, she was standing in Ben’s room, donning a pair of loose pants, a black shirt, her hair a in those messy three little buns at the back of her head. He had his back turned to her but spun around quickly to face her. His mouth parted as if he wanted to speak, but she beat him to the punch.

“I don’t want to do this right now.”

“Neither do I.” Ben looked at her and sighed. It must have been later than he thought, for she looked worn out. His eyes drifted down to the object taking up her left hand. “Datapad. Research?”

Rey didn’t respond, alternatively, sitting on the floor in the corner of his room. Ben resisted the urge to scream at her to sit off the ground because he knew that even if he told her multiple times, she wouldn’t go on her own. They had been in situations similar to this where he’d told her to go sit in one of the many pieces of furniture he had, but she had blatantly refused, instead, sinking further into herself. 

Maybe if he used force, she would finally listen. “Rey, I’ve told you many times, just sit on the chair or the bench or something. Anywhere but on the floor.”

“This is fine for me.” Rey focused her attention on the glowing screen in front of her, attempting to read the text running across the page. She could only make out bits and pieces. Ben got out of his chair with a huff and moved in her direction.

“I’m only asking once.” This caught her attention. Her dark eyes moved from the screen to his even darker ones, which were now showing clear annoyance. Why he cared so much, eluded her. Why he felt the need to get closer to her, confused her. It’s not like this has been such a major issue before, there were times he didn’t utter a word to her about where she was sitting. Rey had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, but her body being dragged across the floor turned them into saucers. When she looked up, Ben was looking her straight in the eyes, pulling her towards him. 

He wasn’t kidding. 

He scooped her up off the floor and placed her in a chair which had a desk positioned directly ahead of it. “I told you, don’t sit on the floor.” He kneeled next to her for a second, before moving back to his bed and sitting, back against the wall. Ben had successfully got her off the floor, game, set, and match.

Rey sat stunned for a second. Never did she think it bothered him that much for her to acquaint herself with the floor and the coolness leaking through her clothing. It was just the floor, she sat there often, in the comfort of her own room, whenever she went to talk to Finn in his, and even in the library. The ground was comfortable, it was what she was familiar with, what kept her tied to her sense of home. The fact that the bed she was given was nearly too soft for her liking could attest to that, everyone constantly complained of its stiffness.

She couldn’t tell if it was her throwing off the aesthetic of the room by her presence on the floor or that he just couldn’t stand her sitting on the dark tile, but no matter what the response was, she wasn’t going to press it. Instead, she tried to ignore the awkward feelings setting in and try to decipher the text in front of her. In relation to what she had just been previously been reading, this language was one she had a hard time recognizing, let alone translating. 

Letting her head drop, she let out a defeated sigh. 

“Having problems?” Ben’s voice chimed in from the back corner of the room, frustrating her, for the second time.

“It’s nothing to worry over.” She picked up the datapad and tried again to read the senseless words on the screen.

“It seems as if you could use some assistance.” He got off his bed and made his way swiftly over to her.

“No, you do-” Rey protested, but Ben’s large hands pulled the pad out of her reach as he walked across the room to a bench connected to a table, setting the tablet down. 

“Seems as if this was written in one of the old languages. I wonder how they got their hands on this.”

“Ben stop -” She was cut off as a huge diagram filled the space of the room, analyzing her datapad and spitting out a translation. 

“Hm. Looks like it was written in Sith, no wonder it looked familiar.” He looked back at her, beckoning her forward. “Here, this should be able to translate anything for you.”

Rey took slow, cautious steps towards him and the glowing hologram. This completely foreign to her and she had yet to fully trust him. Ben looked back at the screen, processing bits and pieces of the information in front of him.

“It will not attack you if that’s what you’re afraid of.” He stood and took a few steps away from her and the projector, letting her have her space and time to get accustomed to the glowing holo. 

“I know that.” She spoke back. He watched her slowly sit and begin playing with her datapad, in turn manipulating the screen to her will. He saw her let out a slow, steady breath. “Thank you.”

He didn’t respond, just turned and sat back down, doing his own research. They agreed not to share any of their projects with each other, preventing them from finding one another, except by chance. They both didn’t want to take the risk of accidentally exposing something protected by their side, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t assist each other if they needed it.

Right?

After about a half hour, he heard Rey’s voice from the bench. “How do you change the language?” Ben had almost been asleep by then and he quickly came out of the foggy cloud of drowsiness upon hearing her say a question. He sat up and made his way over, sitting far enough away that they had plenty of space, but close enough that he could help.

“Here.” He touched the holo and played with it again until her text transferred over to the standard galactic base that she was familiar with. 

She returned her attention back to the screen and Ben went to go back to where he was previously sitting before she stopped him. “What made you interested in some many languages?”

Odd question from her side. she wasn’t one to ask icebreakers. He answered her nevertheless. “I studied some. Another part of my training.” He looked over his shoulder to find she wasn’t looking at him, attention focused on some faraway object in the room.

“Why?” 

“Because I needed to know them in order to read some things and recognize where I was.”

The next words out of her mouth made his heart stop. “Can you teach me?”

 

A couple days later, he was teaching her Mando’a, a language commonly used for Mandalorians, however few there were. He showed her how to write it, guiding his stencil over the page repeatedly, following the same pattern, creating the same letter. She tried many times and failed, resulting in him having to place his hand over hers while he guided the stencil in the desired pattern. 

“There.” He moved away from her, giving her the space he knew she wanted. “Now repeat it.”

She sat there staring at the paper filled with her attempts at recreating the letter. It wasn’t that the symbol was complicated, it was just that she wasn’t accustomed to writing nor the duration of it. Her fingers were cramped and her wrist ached. She wanted this to be over.

“I don’t think I can, my hand’s exhausted.” She looked up at him, finding his eyebrows furrowed and gaze deep in concentration. As she lifted her hand, it trembled, shaking with lack of conditioning and constant writing practice.

“Let’s stop. We’ll finish later.” He moved to gather his things. 

“Wait, I don’t want to stop, but,” She knew what she was asking was a lot, but maybe he’d help her. “Could you just do what you did before? I think if I memorize the hand movements, I’ll get it.”

He took a deep breath and paused. There was no way she was asking what he thought she was asking, not after realizing what role they played in this war. Surely he’d heard it incorrectly. 

“Please, I can do this, just not on my own.” She looked at him, eyes filled with pleading. He let out a steady breath before returning her gaze, trying to calm his spiking nerves.

“Are you positive?” He scrutinized her.

“Yes, now get over here and help me.” He slowly walked over to her, sitting directly behind her. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, putting his hands over hers, and allowing her at any time to stop this if she became uncomfortable. She didn’t. He could feel the warmth of her small, delicate fingertips seeping into his own, as he applied light pressure and walked her through the movements. 

“Here’s one, two, three…” His breath was so close to Rey’s ear, she had to contain herself from turning completely red. Never had she been this close to anyone, anyone. But she wasn’t going to let this get in the way of learning, she was determined.

His kind teaching had eased Rey’s nerves, as she thought he was going to be a bit more demanding than he was, it gave her the confidence to believe she could actually do this, but lack of sleep and a busy schedule had left her extremely fatigued. His voice was soft, gentle, a big contrast to the more intense, harsh person she had met a few months ago. Gentle enough to put someone to sleep.

Next thing Ben knew, her figure was leaning forward, face first on the paper he had been writing on, deep breaths filling the silence of the room. As she was laying directly on his hand, he couldn’t move without waking her, so he sat in his current position, moving as little as possible.

He observed how peaceful she looked, how all the frustration and weight she carried fell away to reveal how naive and innocent she looked, like the way he first met her. Like how she used to be around him, before…

Ben refused to dwell on past dealings, instead slowly giving way to his enervated state, and following the lull of sleep, hand tucked under her chin, arm around her waist, and head resting against the crook of her neck,

for he knew that she would disappear when he woke,

Like a shooting star he couldn’t catch.


End file.
